Rob Gronkowski Confirms That He Threatened Retirement Over Trade To Lions

BOSTON (CBS) — In the era of scoops, unnamed sources and golden nuggets of information, there’s a plethora of stories that dominate the NFL news cycle. Very rarely, though, do those stories get confirmed on the record by the people involved.

But late on Sunday night in Detroit, in the losing visitor’s locker room, Rob Gronkowski stood at his locker and confirmed to reporters that Adam Schefter’s report was right. That report stated that, upon being informed prior to April’s draft that he was close to being traded to the Lions, Gronkowski threatened retirement and refused to play anywhere but New England.

Gronkowski was asked about the report on Sunday night and stated in no uncertain terms that it was correct.

“Yeah. It happened,” Gronkowski said.

The tight end explained his reasoning, and it was quite simple: He didn’t want to run routes for anybody but Tom Brady.